The popularity of the Internet, coupled with the increasing capabilities of personal/mobile electronic devices, has provided consumers with the ability to enjoy multimedia content almost anytime and anywhere. For example, live content (e.g., sports events) and video on demand (VOD) content (e.g., television shows and movies) can be streamed via the Internet to personal electronic devices (e.g., computers, mobile phones, Internet-enabled televisions, etc.). Various types of personal electronic devices are available to consumers. Different devices may have different screen sizes and may be compatible with different audio formats, video formats, streaming protocols, wireless connection speeds, etc.
Digital video content that can be delivered to personal electronic devices generally includes 3 types of video frames: intracoded frames (I-frames, alternately referred to as key frames), progressive frames (P-frames), and bi-directional frames (B-frames). An I-frame is a “complete” picture (e.g., image frame) that can be decoded independently of whether any preceding or subsequent frames have been received by a player device. Thus, I-frames can be said to have no dependencies on other frames. Decoding of a P-frame is dependent on preceding frame(s), and decoding of a B-frame is dependent on preceding frame(s) and/or future frame(s). Because I-frames have no dependencies, video playback at a player device typically begins once an I-frame is received. An I-frame tends to be larger and less efficient to decode than the other types of frames.
The capturing and sharing of video content between users is becoming increasingly common. For example, a user may record a video clip using a camera of their mobile phone, and the user may send the video clip to a friend or upload the video clip to an online video hosting service. After the video clip has been sent/uploaded, viewer(s) of the video clip may comment on the video clip, thereby sparking a conversation between users. Video clips may thus serve as a starting point for various online conversations. It may be more difficult, however, for a user to capture and communicate video clips of media while the user is viewing the media, such as a video clip of an in-progress movie, television show, or internet video stream. For example, by the time the user retrieves their mobile phone and begins recording, the item of interest (e.g., commercial, scene, sports play, etc.) may be over. Using a mobile device to record video being displayed on a different display device (e.g., a television or computer monitor) may also result in a low-quality video clip.